AUSTRALIA.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXII, Issue 8902, 19 September 1889, Page 5

AUSTRALIA.

[Special to Press Association.] [Eeceiyed Sept. 18, at 1 p.m.] MR DILLON'S TOUR. MELBOUENB, Sept. IS. At the contention of the National League Mr Dillon thanked the Irish of Australia for the splendid assistance they had afforded the National cause. I le said that Ireland was now at a supreme crisis of her history, and almost within sight of victory. Her fate depended on the course of affairs during the next two or three years, and the issue of the next general election. VICTORIAN JINGOISM. SYDNEY, Sept, 18. The Premier stated in the Legislative Assembly, last night, that Admiral Fairfax had tried to remove the Naval Station to Melbourne because of the greater display of jingoism in Victoria. DISTURBANCES IN THE MOON. The Observatory here has received a cable message from Professor Thury, of Genova, intimating that changes are taking place in the moon’s surface in the centre of the Crater of Plinius. [The generally accepted theory is that the moon is a dead world, presenting to.

telescopic observation abundant traces of volcanic agency, but without the faintest sign of recent action; without atmosphere, unless of extreme rarity, and without animal or vegetable life. In this connection, it will bo remembered, by some of our readers at least, how graphically the late E. A. Proctor dealt with the subject under notice when lecturing in Christchurch in October, 1880. His contention was that on account of the estimated specific gravity of the moon as compared with the earth its men must be giants of thirty-six feet high; further, that at high noon there was a heat greater than that of boiling water, and that the midnight temperature would he 282 degrees below freezing point. At one of the meetings of the National Academy of Sciences, Loudon, evidence was adduced with the view of “indicating some atmosphere, like an envelope, for the moon.”j

Sept 19. at 12.40 a.m.j A NEW GOLDFIELD. THURSDAY ISLAND, Sspt. 18. A rush has set in at Hammond Island, where good gold has been discovered, and the town is almost deserted.